The Silicon Valley is adding jobs faster than it has in more than a decade. Stocks and fortunes are soaring. But bleaker records are also being set: Food stamp participation just hit a 10-year high and homelessness rose 20 percent in two years. Simply put, while the ultra-rich are getting even richer, record numbers of Silicon Valley residents are slipping into poverty.

It's the question every incumbent up for reelection has had to answer since challenger Ronald Reagan first posed it to President Jimmy Carter in 1980. But in this 2012 campaign, the answer is not so simple, for all the rhetoric on both sides.

When you graduate college, you've got six months before you have to start repaying your student loans. For members of the class of 2011, that grace period ends soon, but all too many of them haven't found jobs and can't afford to start making those payments. We asked John Ulzheimer of SmartCredit.com to discuss their options.

Everyone knows that the typical American household has been running in place or falling behind financially, thanks to stagnant wages and rising prices. But a new study from the the Economic Policy Institute shows that the problem has been endemic not for years, but for decades.

A report on the economic condition of the nation by the Obama Administration%u2019s Council of Economic Advisers is providing a clearer picture of a difficult the economic recovery: high unemployment and low growth for the next five years.